What Should I Do?
by KR Blake
Summary: When Austin and Ally are taking a walk in Miami, they're attacked by a Hellhound. Ally is pulled into the haunting world of the demigods. But she is not like any other demigod. She is one of a kind, but is that a good thing, when it comes to the quest the Olympians give her? She'll make valuable friends, torrid enemies, and a decision that will end her life-or Austin's. HIATUS!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: What In The Name Of Pickles Just Happened?

* * *

_"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author."  
-Gilbert K. Chesterton_

* * *

I sit at the bench of my rickety old piano, tapping the eraser of my pencil against the cluttered page of my book as I thought. I examined the words crowding the pages.

'_I can get your heart beat, beat, beat, beating like that…_' is the first thought in the centre of the page. I can't pinpoint what I was thinking when I scribbled the words. Why would I write something like that? I makes no sense; I don't have a crush on anyone since Dallas moved away three months ago.

I press the sharpened tip of my pencil to the small free space in the corner of the page. I'm just about to start writing, when the door opens behind me. I turn around to see Austin leaning against the open door frame. I smiled and motioned for him to sit down beside me.

"What's up?" he asks.

"I'm trying to think up some new lyrics." I mutter. "But they're just not coming."

"How long have you been up here?" I look up at him warily.

"A few hours, I think. What time is it?" I stifle a yawn.

"Six." He says. I groan and put my head down in my arms on the keys. They clang and chime as they hit them. I feel Austin start to rub my shoulders. "C'mon. Let's take a walk." He says.

I nod, take a deep breath, and follow him off the piano bench and out the door of our practice room. We walk side by side down the stairs to the main store, where dad is at the violin display, showing a customer how to properly tune a violin. He looks up at us as we walk past.

"I'll be back later, dad. We're just taking a walk." I say. He nods and turns back to the redwood violin perched under his chin.

"Don't forget your curfew." He says without looking up. I groan the mention of my strict eight o'clock curfew, but don't argue. I learned years ago to not mess with dad when it comes to my curfew.

"I'll have her home by then, Lester." Austin assures dad. That seems to lessen the uneasy look on dad's face. I have the sneaking suspicion he trusts Austin more than he trusts me.

Austin claps his hands down on my shoulders and steers me out of the store, into the fading sunshine of Miami. The second the sunshine hits my face, my mood brightens. I feel the corners of my mouth tug into a smile and my eyes droop closed. I take a deep breath of the fresh summer air, letting it fill my lungs. I open my eyes and look up at Austin. He's looking out over the mall plaza. There's a strange look on his face. I swear he's _sniffing_ the air.

"What on earth are you doing?" I say, giving him an odd look.

"Just…thinking…" he says slowly. He stuffs his hands in his pocket and nod for me to follow him. We start walking across the mall, side by side in silence.

"So what were you trying to do earlier?" he asks once we had left the mall plaza.

"I was trying to write a new song, but…" I trail off.

"The words wouldn't come." He finishes. He nods. I look up at him again. There's a far off look in his eyes; the same look he says I get when I play the piano.

"What is it with you today?" I ask. He blinks, looking at me surprised, like he forgot I was there for a moment. "You keep zoning out on me."

"S-sorry." He trips over himself for a moment. "I just…you know when you have this weird feeling in the pit of your stomach; like something's wrong, but you can't see anything wrong?" I nod in understanding. I get those feelings every now and then. I tried to tell my dad about them once, but he just got a scared look on his face for a second, before telling me to ignore them. But some part of my brain screamed against the advice, and told me to run every time I got one.

So yeah, I know what he meant.

We lapse in silence again. I lean my head against his shoulder and take another deep breath. He arm goes around my shoulder, hugging me closer to him.

I know, some people might find this weird, since we're only best friends (nothing more, I _swear_!), but we're like that. Best friends.

I angle my face closer to him and bury it in his chest. I smile at his familiar scent; a fresh summer breeze, even fresher than the one around us right now.

Suddenly, the rustling of leaves behind us makes us stop walking. I feel Austin go rigid beside me. We turn around, and what's there nearly makes me vomit.

Standing behind us is…what I can only describe as a giant black dog. And I mean _gi-ant_. Like, ten feet tall, two hundred pounds giant. My face twists in horror. I look up at Austin, but his hazel eyes just steel over, and he lets go of my shoulder. He hisses something at the giant dog in another language. The dog barks, making the ground beneath our feet rumble.

Austin reaches into his ripped jeans pocket and brings out…a _coin_. He steps toward the giant dog and clutches the coin in his hand.

"Austin! What in the heck are you doing?" I shriek at him. He stops. "Get away from that…that _thing_!"

"Ally, trust me." he says. His voice is oddly calm.

"But –" I start, but he cuts me off again.

"Ally." He turns his head a bit to look me in the eye. I've never seen him like this before. He looks… ruthless, I guess you would call it. There is a fiery look in his eyes, but his face is stony and calm. "Just trust me." A pleading look flits across his eyes. "Please."

I gulp and nod, and step back.

Austin flips the coin into the air. The coin shimmers at its apex, and shifts its composition. As the coin comes down, it is no longer a coin. It's a double bladed sword, glinting copper in the fading light. He catches the sword by its leather grip and holds it aloft in front of him.

"Wanna dance?" he growls at the dog. The dog barks again, making the ground rumble. I see the muscles in its legs tense, and it leaps forward. Austin dives to the side with agility I didn't know he had. The dog lands in a crouch and turns to Austin.

Austin holds the sword up again and runs forward. At the last second, just before he runs head on into the dog's snout, he rolls to the left and stands. He jumps up, raising the blade as he does.

The dog growls low in its throat, and thrashes its head upward. The motion hits Austin midair and knocks him out of the air. I scream for Austin as he crumples to the ground, unmoving. His double bladed sword falls to the side in the grass, a good eight feet from him.

The dog shifts its position to face me. It growls again and bends down in a fighting position. For a second, I'm frozen by the sight of its soulless, coal black eyes, not even glinting in the last rays of sunshine.

What happens next is like it's in slow motion. The muscles in the dog's legs tense again. I see in my periphery, Austin's head lift up an inch. He coughs and blinks, trying to get rid of the fog in his eyes.

"Ally," he struggles. "The sword." He coughs again. "Get the sword."

I turn back to the dog just as it starts forward. Fear ignites in my stomach. I don't know what to do.

But then I do.

I dove to the side, rolling in the grass. Locks of my hair catch in the grass, and tangle with blades of the turf. I come up on one knee, inches from the sword. I curl my tiny fingers around the leather grip and lift it from the grass. It's heavy in my hands, and off balance, but it's all I have. I stand and turn to the dog, holding the sword up.

The dog bucks its head and charges at me. At the last second, I side step and try to stab the dog in its side. I only manage a nick in its flank before the dog stops and turns head on to me. The dog rushes forward.

I consider diving to the side, but even before the dog made its move, I knew I had no hope. So instead, I raise the sword, and steel my nerves for what I'm about to do. Just as the dog is about to maul me, I thrust the sword upward – right into its nose. The dog whimpers, and jerks its head to the side. The handle is ripped from my hands, and I'm thrown to the side. I fly into the air and hit the grass feet away. My head smacks the ground, and as I roll, my legs and arms smack against something else. The second I stop rolling, I look to see what I hit.

Austin. He's standing now, sprinting towards the dog. He kicks off the ground and leaps onto the creature. As he falls, he grabs the hilt of the sword, and drags it down from where it protrudes from the dog's snout. The sword is ripped down with Austin's body weight.

The dog shudders, thrashing and snapping its jaw. Austin just watches as the dog slowly crumbles into dust, blown away by the summer wind. He throws the sword up in the air. I'm about to scream at him to run from the falling blade, but its image shimmers in the air before I can. As the sword falls from its apex, it turns back into the coin, which he snatches out of the hand. The dog has finished crumbling by now, and Austin turns to me. He rushes over to where I lay in the grass, struggling to stand up.

He helps me up to a standing position. The second I'm up, he has me by the hand, and is dragging me back towards the Miami mall. I stumble and trip over my own feet, but Austin doesn't slow to help me. He just tugs my hand and yells for me to hurry up.

We only slow when the Sonic Boom comes into sight. But even then, we only slow to a jog. I ignore the people stopping to gawk at us, running through a mall, covered in sweat, grass and mud stain, and probably blood. We jog to the door, where dad is just locking up the store. Austin finally drops my hand from his grip. I wish he hadn't, though, because as it drops to my side, it starts to shake uncontrollably.

"Lester!" Austin calls to dad, his hands cupped around his mouth for amplification. Dad looks up from the door to us, and freezes. His face looks truly terrified as his eyes comb over us. Then he snaps into motion, dropping the keys in his hands, and runs over to us. He stops in front of me and grabs me by the shoulder. He looks from me to Austin.

"They found you, didn't they?" he asks frantically. Austin just nods. Dad turns back to me, the terrified look in his eyes escalating to sheer horror. "Get the others. We have to go. _Now_."

Austin nods again, and pulls out his cellphone. Dad stops him just before he can turn it on. "_No!_" he shouts. "It's too dangerous! We'll just pick them up on our way!" Austin nods and stuffs the cellphone back in his pocket. Dad turns to me again.

"Dad, what the hell is going on?" I feel like I'm on the brink of hysteria right about now. I shake more and more, until my whole body is shaking.

"Ally, listen to me." dad says insistently. "We're leaving. We'll explain on the way, I promise. Just trust me." I nod numbly, and let him grab my hand. We start to walk away from the store, when I stop. I wrench my hand from dads and tear back to the store.

I try the door. It's unlocked. I undermine dad and Austin's shouts of compliance, and run into the store. I sprint up the steps to the practice room, taking them two at a time. When I reach the practice room, I grab my book from the piano bench and run back out. Austin is waiting for me in the store. He gives me a questioning look, which I ignore, and follow him out the door.

Ω

The three of us load ourselves into dad's van that he uses for instrument deliveries around Miami. Dad sits in the front, driving. Austin and I sit in the back, leaning against the metal doors of the large back. The second dad is driving, I turn to Austin.

"Okay, I followed you; now tell me what the name of pickles just happened?" I wave my arms madly for effect.

Austin chews his lip nervously, refusing to meet my eyes. "Just tell her, Austin." dad says from the front, glancing at him in the rear view mirror. "She was going to find out sooner or later." then he mutters to himself, "I don't know why I thought I could keep it from her. I'm an idiot for waiting so long."

Austin nods at dad and looks me in the eye. "Ally, you and me; we're not like anybody else. We have to fight monsters so the mortals don't have to. It's what we do." He takes a deep breath. "Ally, we're not human. Well, we are half human, but that's beside the point. Ally, my point is…" he pauses. "We're not human. We're demigods."

* * *

**So what do you guys think? I won't be updating until PTI is finished (in a few weeks), but I wanted to see what you guys'll say about it. But stay tuned. Who is Ally's mom? Who is Austin's godly parent? Why did Lester think he could hide Ally's demigod-ness from her for so long? Why could Ally not leave her book?**

**P.S.: the title is pending. It probably will change in the future. **

**Keep on reading, guys!**

**-KR Blake Ω**


	2. Please Don't Leave Me, Daddy

Chapter two: Please Don't Leave Me, Daddy

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"_Furthermore, we have not even to risk the journey alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world._"

_-Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand faces_

* * *

My mouth drops open to the floor of the van. "Are you kidding me?" I say in disbelief. Austin shakes his head. "So…we're _demigods_. Like Heracles and Achilles and Daedalus and those guys? The ones we learned about in English?"

He gulps; I can see his Adam's apple bob as he does. "I-I'm sorry."

"For lying to me?" I raise an eyebrow.

"_No!_" he says hurriedly. "No, I'd never lie to you! I just meant," he reaches into his pocket absentmindedly and brings out the coin he used back at the mall. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this." He whispers gruffly. He sounds like he's trying to keep down a lump in his throat.

"It's cool." I say. He looks at me, astonished.

"Really?"

"Yeah." I nod and lean back against the cool metal of the van's wall. "I would have found out my best friend is insane sooner or later."

"Ally," he says sternly, staring into my eyes with an intense expression. "I'm not insane. You know I'm not. I'm a demigod, and deep down, you know you are too." there's something about in voice… his usual singsong voice is gone. He doesn't sound like the goof I've known for two years. This new voice scares me.

"We're here." Dad calls from the front seat. The van jerks to a stop, sending me into a little tumble across the van's hard floor.

Without a second's delay, Austin bounds up from his crouch and is out the van's door. I watch as he runs to the front door of the house we're parked in front of. I know this house. It's Dez's.

"Why are we at Dez's house?" I ask dad. He looks at me in the rear view mirror; his eyes are slightly frantic and crazy looking.

"He needs to come with us." Is all dad says. His voice is thick, like he's trying not to cry. I can't help but recollect the last time his voice sounded like this; I was four years old then.

I don't ask any further questions. I can't think of them. Actually, there are a million I'd like to ask; where are we going? Why does Dez have to come with us? Is he sure Austin's not insane? But when these questions zip through my head, I can't seem to vocalize any of them. So instead, I sit in silence in the back of dad's van, muddling in my own confusion.

The door opens again, and Austin throws himself into the van, followed by Dez. Dez shuts the door behind him and sits down cross legged on the floor beside his friend. He surveys me intently.

"You two were attacked, weren't you?" he says.

"A Hellhound. A fully grown one, too." Austin answers, nodding grimly. "Fresh from the Fields of Asphodel."

"Why would the Fates send one now?" Dez asks, rubbing the golden ring on his left middle finger. He's always wearing that ring; a sapphire encrusted solid gold band. The sapphire is encrusted so it looks like waves lapping on one another. It's a beautiful ring. I've asked him where he got it, but all he would say was that it was his favourite.

"I don't know." Austin rubs his chin with one hand, clutching the coin tight with the other. "It wasn't summoned right in front of us; it was wandering around for a while. So the Fates did send her to us. There's no question in that."

The two boys are silent for a minute, before Dez turns to me. "He told you, right?"

"That he's insane? Not directly, but I read between the lines of him saying we're both demigods." I say acidly. Dez nods. He doesn't try to say anything else, as I think he would. He just leans against the metal wall and puts his head back.

Minutes pass in a tense silence. I can't tell how many miles we've passed now; probably two or three. The van jerks to a stop again, and this time Dez gets out of the van instead of Austin. I can just catch a glimpse of this house before the door closes. It's a neat enough looking bungalow with kid's toys scattered around the freshly cut lawn; Trish's house.

"What do Trish and Dez have to do with this insanity?" I ask Austin. He looks at me, amused, and says, "They have to come with us."

"Where?"

"It's…complicated." He is avoiding my gaze pointedly. "Chiron will explain once we get there."

'_Chiron,_' I think. '_The trainer of demigods. Wow. He's laying this on pretty thick._' I roll my eyes.

The van door pops open again, and in climbs Dez and Trish. They sit down in the bed of the van, gasping for breath.

"Floor it." Trish coughs, clamoring for air. "Hellhounds." She coughs again. "Hellhounds everywhere."

Dad guns the motor of the van so fast I vault across the bed, striking the top of my head on the door handle of the van. Shoots of pain make me cry out. I feel the spot where it hit. Instead of touching my scalp, my fingers brush against something liquid and sticky; blood. The second I feel the blood, I feel myself getting lightheaded. Of course. Just my luck. My friends are crazy, and I have a head wound. What else, huh universe?

"Hang on kids." Dad says, gripping the steering wheel tight. "It's going to be a bumpy ride. Dez?" he glances back at Dez. "We're going to North Miami Beach." His voice is controlled, and his words are completely normal, but what he says seems to freak Dez out. His voice pales, like he's suddenly anemic and his eyes grow wide and scared.

Dad turns back to the front. I can hear the engine growl louder as dad pushes the van's limits. He twists and turns through the streets of Miami like a madman, probably breaking several driving laws and earning himself several hearty tickets. The ride throws me left and right. I bang against the walls of the van, but I don't even feel it. Blood is dripping down the side of my head, and my mind is fuzzing. I can't seem to register anything other than pain.

Ω

Minutes later, dad swerves the van into the empty parking lot of North Miami Beach. I find it strange that the beach is empty; usually it's crowded until midnight during July and August. Instead of questioning this, I let Austin grab me by the hand and haul me out of the van onto the beach. Trish and Dez follow us, and dad is close behind. Austin drags me across the sand relentlessly. It's all I can do to keep my book clutched close to my chest and shut my eyes to block out any flying sand.

The sound of waves crashing roars in my ears, but over that I can hear dad yell, "Austin!"

Austin stops and turns to dad. I look back to where he is staring, horrified. More of the giant black dogs are bounding across the beach towards us; at least five, all in a pack.

"It's never over." Austin mutters. He lets go of my hand and takes the coin out of his pocket. He flips it in the air, like he did not an hour earlier. The coin shimmers, and in the blink of an eye, it's the same sword he had used to kill the 'Hellhound' outside the mall. He holds the sword aloft, shifting his position so he stands in front of me, blocking me from the Hellhounds.

I look beside me, where a few feet away, Dez stands. He is rubbing his ring again. Even from here, I can see the deliberation behind his dark eyes. He taps the ring hard. The ring spirals out in a flash. The tort knocks Dez back an inch, but he regains his footing and holds up the huge metal shield on his arm. I don't want to ask where he got the shield; curiosity killed the cat, after all.

I look to the left, to Trish, who stands a foot away, holding a spear. Okay, I _know _that's not right. She adjusts her grip on the spear's shaft, a blazing look igniting in her eyes.

The three of them look…horrifying. They hold their weapons like they've held them forever. The way they stand tells me they aren't afraid to kill anything; even me. Like I said; horrifying.

"_Now!_" Austin screams in front of me. All at once, the three of them are in motion, running forward to the advancing Hellhounds. Austin jumps at the first one, holding the sword high above his head. He brings it down in one swipe, embedding the blade into the dog's forehead. The dog howls and crumbles into dust as Austin rolls into the sand and comes up on one knee. The dust is blown away, swirling in the wind and resting on the sand.

Austin turns to a second Hellhound and charges. I'm caught up in the fight now, hanging on to their every move, horrified of what might happen. I'm only snapped out of it when a tentative hand touches my arm. I whip around to see dad standing behind me. I wrap my arms around him in a tight hug.

"Ally, listen to me. You're going to a place for kids like you." He says in my ear. I want to block him out and bury my face in his chest, like I did when I was little. But I can't; I know that. "You're going to have to be strong for me." he lets go of me and holds me by the shoulders. "Can you be strong?" his eyes search mine for some sign that I won't be strong. He is still searching when I nod numbly.

"Daddy, don't leave me." I choke out. It feels like a giant cotton ball is wedged in my throat, it's so hard to speak.

"I have to, sweetie." He hugs me again. "All heroes have to do this on their own."

I can barely hear him over the roar of the waves and the growls from the Hellhound. What I can hear makes tears spring to my eyes. I let go of him and nod again to show I'll try to be okay. I can feel my heart breaking in my ribcage. I don't want to leave him. I never want to.

Suddenly, I am being swept off my feet. I look up through my tears at Austin's face above me. He doesn't wait for me to sling my arms around his neck. He breaks into a full sprint right off the bat, running straight into the surf. Spray hits my face, plastering my hair to it. I look up at Austin. A cut on his forehead drips blood down the left side of his face. It looks serious, but with the probable high levels of adrenaline buzzing through him at this moment, I doubt he notices.

He stops when he is in up to his knees and looks to the side. I follow his gaze to Dez standing a few feet away, staring at the water intently. His lips are moving slightly as he speaks silently.

"Can you do it?" Austin calls over to Dez above the crashing waves around us. Dez doesn't answer this. He just continues in his trance, his muscles clamped tight. The way the wind picks up around him and whips his shocking red hair around is eerie. Shadows are cast over his face from the milky moon above, making his cheekbones seem more hollowed than I know they are, and his face scarier than I've ever seen it.

"What is he doing?" I ask Austin in a small voice that is nearly swept away by the roaring ocean winds.

"Calling his dad." Austin replies, keeping his eyes locked on Dez.

I am about to ask further questions, but crashing waves upon each other cuts me off. I rip my eyes from Austin to the ocean around us. The dark waters swirl around Austin and I like a whirlpool. I tighten my grip on Austin, burying my head in his chest, as the waters rise around his legs. His thighs are now soaked and covered with the rapidly growing tower of water. Then it hits his waist, followed by his stomach and my back side.

The cold water shocks me, making my senses sharper for a second. I can see everything clearly—just for a second before it starts to haze again. The salt water hits my nose, practically slapping me in the face. The moonlight clarifies on the water towering us, propelling us higher than the surface of the ocean itself.

I look over to the side. Dez is surrounded by his own cone of ocean water. On the other side of Dez is Trish, looking frantic as the water rises around her. She looks like she is trying to struggle out of the cyclonic water, but to no avail.

"Hold on." Austin murmurs. I look back up at his face. His eyes are trained forward, deeper into the Atlantic Ocean.

I feel a lurch, and I hear water _swoosh_ in my ears. I know without looking that we're being pushed by the columns of water away from Miami.

To where?

Well, quite frankly, I am scared to find out.

* * *

**Sooo, what do you think? Good? Bad? A little rushed at the end? Well, I thought it was, but y'know... If you hadn't guessed, Dez is a son of Poseidon. **

**Notes!**

-"awesome story! please keep writing... for me?": **Dude *_scoffs_* I'm NEVER going to stop writing as long as you guys keep reading and reviewing! Thanks! **

**-KR Blake Ω**


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